Ahhh, the traditions of spring—the first robin and the first sign for a garage sale! Garage sales combine two impulses that most of us share—the urge to de-clutter and the desire to “find” some cash. Here are ten tips that will help you achieve both:

Set aside a spot in your garage or basement to store things you come across throughout the year that you’d like to sell.

Limit the sale to one day—Saturday. Try to do it on a day when there are lots of sales going on around you—especially neighborhood-wide ones.

Consider tagging on to a church or nonprofit sale. You’ll need to set up at their location and donate a fee or percentage, but you’ll probably come out ahead given the extra traffic you’ll see.

Start early—the serious shoppers are making the rounds at 7 a.m. to get first dibs.

Don’t put out junk—cars will drive right on by and miss all your really good stuff.

Price your items to sell and post prices on everything.

If possible use tables and don’t put small things on the ground.

Make sure to highlight your exceptional and unique items by positioning them strategically. Look at your sale from the street and make sure they stand out.

Don’t negotiate against yourself. If an item is priced at $2 and someone asks the inevitable question, “What will you take for this?”…your answer should be “$2.” If they’d like to counter, then the negotiation starts.

After the sale, donate all or most of what’s left to a local nonprofit. Remember, part of your goal was to de-clutter, so don’t re-clutter!

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